The major opium growing regions in China lie in the N.E., Central and Southern provinces (Table 6). Comparative estimates of the averages under cultivation on ordinary opium farms throughout the country (Table 6), show that the Southern provinces of Yunnan, Kweichow and Kwangsi constitute the largest producing areas, contributing more than 30% of the total production. Opium produced in these provinces is of particularly good quality. The Southern provinces are favourable located for the export of opium narcotics to the South. Yunnan has particular strategic significance in relation to the border areas of Burma, Thailand and N. Vietnam which provide the major staging areas for outbound narcotics traffic to S.E. Asia (Map 2). Further to the East, Kweichow and Kwangsi supply traffic through Canton to Hong Kong and Macao (Map 2). Considerable amounts of opium are produced in the Central Provinces of Honan, Hupeh, Anhwei and Kiangsi. The total area under cultivation in this part of China represents some 20% of the national acreage in ordinary opium farms. Areas under extensive cultivation in N. and N.E. China contribute to a lesser extent to the total output. These areas, in particular Jehol province, produce opium of the best quality. Geographically their location is significant. They lie largely in Manchuria, where the production of morphine and heroin is an established industry. Furthermore those areas bordering N. Korea and the Gulf of Dairen have immediate outlets to Japan.
The refining of opium and the production of morphine and heroin is carried out in mumerous factories at industrial centres in each major opium growing region. In the North East Region factories producing heroin and morphine are located in Dairen, Shenyang, Chinchow and Kirin. In North China, morphine and heroin are produced in refineries in Peiping and Tientsin, and in Taiywan (Shansi province). In East China, morphine is manufactured in Hangchow and Shanghai. In South China there are factories for the production of morphine and heroin in the Kwangtung province, particularly in Canton. Elsewhere in the more distant western parts of China morphine is manufactured in Kunming (Yunnan), Chengtu and Chungking (Szechwan). Morphine is also produced in Hankow in Central China. The locations of these refineries bear significance in relation to the strategic pattern of processing, production and export of morphine and heroin to markets abroad. Kunming refineries in Yunnan handle opium from the border areas in Burma. Refined morphine from Kunming is sold back to Burma through Communist agencies. This trade outlet is of immense importance, since it provides an immediate route for Chinese heroin directed at U.S. troops in Cambodia and Vietnam.
The production of opium drugs for export on a global scale provides the Chinese with a valuable source of national income, and a powerful weapon of subversion.
The subversive aspects of the Chinese drug drive have three basic aims: to finance subversive activities abroad, to corrupt and weaken the people of the free world, and to destroy the morale of U.S. service men fighting in S.E. Asia. Chinese Communist subversive activities in foreign countries are mainly financed from the profits of the narcotics trade. In Hong Kong alone a 1970 estimate by the Narcotics Investigation Division of the Police quoted net profits from the narcotics trade in Hong Kong of some 1 million HK monthly.
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